Yaolan
Yaolan is the real name of the Russo-Chinese Combatant Medusa. Appearance Yaolan is a girl in her teens. She is of Cantonese origin and is seen dressed in the fatigues of the Russo-Chinese military. She is described first as having shiny black hair, full lips and dark eyes. She is marked by several scars on one side of her face. Her nose and lips are twisted downwards, and she has patches on her head where the hair had been seared off. History Insignia Yaolan debuts as the Intersolar Combatant known by the call sign Medusa. Tom becomes fascinated as Major Cromwell lectures about Medusa and how Medusa was able to shift the entire course of the war. The class ends with Tom yearning for a chance to fight her. Later, during an incursion on an applied sim featuring the Trojan War, Medusa poses as a Greek Warrior along with several other Russo-Chinese combatants. She chooses Achilles as her avatar. While most of the Indo-American Combatants log out, Tom stays behind and engages her in combat, in which she prevails. Medusa is next seen rebuking Tom on his penetration of the Sun-Tzu Citadel and promises to meet him on an online gaming site when he wishes. After playing through a sim and once again prevailing, Medusa disappears. Medusa appears several times more in the VR sims, most prominently warning Tom to leave at one point due to the leak of CamCo identities, courtesy of Nigel Harrison and Dalton Prestwick. When Tom is released form his neural culling by Marsh and his father, he attempts to ask her to lose to him so he may stay at the Spire. The attempt fails due to Tom's inability to communicate however, and Tom has to resort to other means. Medusa next appears at Capitol Summit as the Russo-Chinese proxy to Svetlana Moriakova. After fighting Nigel briefly, and then Elliot, Medusa and Tom face off with Tom's place at the Pentagonal Spire on the line. Tom learns that Medusa was able to interface with machines the same way he could, and that was one of the secrets to her success. She notices and immediately lashes out. Tom attempts to fight her fairly, yet begins to lose. Finally he after a brief journey through the heads of Elliot Ramirez and Svetlana Moriakova, Tom is able to enter the security cameras and see the real Medusa for the first time. He takes in her appearance and decides, if he is to have any chance of winning, he'd have to use this against her. After revealing that he'd seen her true identity, she lashes out in a suicidal attempt to destroy him, and fails, giving the win to Tom. Medusa's final appearance in the book is when she and Tom see each other after the fight in the VR sim several months later. She is hurt and upset, and tries to leave, but after Tom's several attempts, she finally leaves with the promise to fight him again. Known Avatars Brunhilde: Used in a VR Sim against Tom as Siegfried Ching Shih: Used in a Pirate Simulation Fire Spraying Egyptian Queen: Battles in a Sim when Tom is using an ogre. Achilles: Used in the Greek Incursion Abilities Interfacing: Medusa, like Tom, is able to control machines through her neural processor, even when the machine is not built to respond to it. Relationships Tom Raines: yaolan and Tom share a difficult relationship due to their being on opposite sides of the war. She is slow trust him, which is slowed further by his two betrayals. However, she seems to genuinely like him which is shown as she risked her life to save him when he was at Obsidian Corp. Category:Characters